Federal Liberal candidate Kimberley Love returns today from the Liberal Summer Caucus in Ottawa, where she pressed local concerns as a member of the Liberal Shadow Caucus, representing Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.
“It’s one of the benefits of a longer candidacy,” Love said yesterday in Ottawa. “Over the past two-plus years, I’ve had the chance to explore some of these issues at length with constituents and community leaders in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. Fortunately, I have a Party which wants those views represented as we look ahead to the fall session of Parliament and beyond.”
Love has been included in Liberal Rural Caucus issues since 2009, and is well-known for her stance on policy support for family farms and the local food movement: which Love believes go “hand in hand”. Love, who once worked as a District Manager for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), was also asked to work on the economic file at Summer Caucus with colleagues from the Liberal parliamentary caucus and the senate.
“We have a government,” Love notes, “which is still preparing to cut corporate taxes – for the biggest companies in Canada – by $4 billion. And this is at a time when the economy is still shrinking. Here in this riding, what would benefit us most is support for small business. And I believe that our interests here are the same as the national interest: job creation in our small- and mid-sized businesses should be the focus. Small businesses are the real economic engine; they create more jobs, they keep more money at home, and they create a more diversified and robust economy overall.”
“We know that small business is actually the economic engine of Canada,” says Love. “And that includes small farms and rural businesses. I was pleased to work on the economic file because I believe that rural interests have not been well managed by the current Conservative government. By contrast, Liberals will continue to keep rural issues front and centre: whether that’s policy support for family farms, rural healthcare, or high-speed internet to support education and business development.”
The Liberal Summer Caucus brought together members of the Senate, the parliamentary caucus and the newly formed Shadow Caucus. Such sessions help to lay out Party priorities for the upcoming session of Parliament.
Love says there were some key themes.
“As Liberals, we believe that smarter, evidencebased policy is the key to good government,” she observed. “Not ideology. Canadians want pragmatic leadership on issues like the economy, healthcare and crime. I think we all know that we won’t get that from Mr. Harper.”
As a member of the Shadow Caucus, Love will also be included as a shadow cabinet advisor. “It’s my job to ensure that the issues of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound get on the table,” says Love. “I invite groups and constituents to contact me at any time if they have an issue they would like to raise.”
